1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Multimedia Telecommunications Call Centre, and in particular although not exclusively, to such a Call Centre which is capable of handling in an integrated way not only standard telephony services but also communications carrying data and/or video information.
2. Related Art
A typical prior art Call Centre is shown schematically in FIG. 1. The telephony and computer equipment of an individual organisation, illustrated generally by the reference numeral 10, is coupled with an external network 12, for example the public telephone network, via a series of lines 14,15. These lines may be of various types, for example standard telephone lines for voice traffic, ISDN lines, and so on. The equipment owned by the organisation is delimited in the Figure from the external network 12 by the wavy line 16. It is to be understood that equipment to the left of that line will normally be privately owned, although it need not necessarily all reside in one building or indeed even at one site. For large organisations, the privately owned equipment may be spread across several sites, and perhaps in several different countries, with the elements being linked by an appropriate private telephony and/or computer network. In this description, anything to the left of the wavy line 16 will be referred to as being in the xe2x80x9cCall Centre domainxe2x80x9d.
Incoming calls enter the organisation by the lines 14,15 and are first directed to an ACD or automatic call distributor 18. This strips off the calling line ID from the incoming call and, with the aid of an intelligent interface, arranges for the call to be routed across a LAN or WAN 22 to the most appropriate person within the call centre domain, under control of a computer 20. Typically, communications between the ACD 18 and the computer 20 are effected via CSTA (Computer Supported Telecommunications Applicationsxe2x80x94a standard interface defined by the European Computer Manufacturers Association in ECMA Technical Report TR/68 of December 1994). To that end, the ACD may incorporate a TCP/IP interface 28.
The ACD 18 is capable of dealing with standard (voice) telephony, as well as ISDN services. An incoming voice message may be automatically switched to an appropriate standard telephone 29, to a voice mail unit 30 or to an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) unit 32. Similarly, incoming ISDN calls are directed to an appropriate ISDN 2 phone 34 or to a VC 8000 terminal 36, which allows video conferencing.
In addition to the voice or ISDN services, the computer 20 can arrange for information relating to the call to be displayed on a user""s computer 24, 26.
The prior art system illustrated in FIG. 1 is technically complex, since the ACD has to interface with a large number of different devices, each making use of different protocols. In FIG. 1, for example, the ACD 18 has to handle audio, video, data and telephony services. This causes difficulties, not only in setting up such a system initially, but also in the expansion of such systems, for example when the organisation in question requires more terminals or additional services. The maintenance of such a system requires the use of relatively skilled personnel.
According to the present invention there is provided a Multimedia Telecommunications Call Centre comprising a computer network adapted to carry addressed Multimedia calls, a Gateway to the network adapted to receive multimedia calls for transmission by the network, and a Call Manager arranged to effect addressing to a desired network node of received multimedia calls.
In the present specification and claims, the term xe2x80x9cMultimediaxe2x80x9d refers to a device which is capable of dealing with one or more (and preferably two or more) of the following types of call: Standard Audio (Voice) calls, Video and Data. The data functionality may, but need not, comply with the Data Conferencing Standard T.120 of the International Telecommunication Union.
The present invention provides the possibility, for the first time, of achieving integrated video, audio data and telephony functionality in the Call Centre environment, together with the possibility of connectivity to the Internet, ISDN, PSTN and other wide-area networks.
Preferably, the Call Centre of the present invention uses distributed technology, across a local area network, and provides for a separate Gateway to the LAN and Gatekeeper for the LAN. The distributed nature of the Call Centre in the preferred embodiment means that the Gateway, and possibly even the Gatekeeper, can reside within an external network rather than being an overhead on the customer""s premises.
The integrated solution which the present invention provides allows for lower infrastructure costs, including a reduction in cabling costs. In addition, the Gateway may be provided as a separate network resource in the embodiment in which it comprises part of the external network, outside the customer""s premises.
Preferably, communication between the Gateway and the Gatekeeper takes place across the LAN and uses the International Telecommunication Union H.323 standard protocol. Communication between the Gatekeeper and the computer on which the business application resides (the Call Manager) preferably also takes place across the network, this time according to the European Computer Manufacturers Association CSTA standard protocol.
The Gateway and the Gatekeeper together act as a virtual PBX (Private Branch Exchange) on the network.
The invention further extends to a method of transmitting multimedia calls within a Call Centre environment as defined by the apparatus set out above and/or as described in the specific description and the claims.